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About The Grantonian (Portland, Ore.) 19??-???? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 1966)
12 THE GRANTONIAN December 16, 1966 Thornton watches Japanese class, speaks by Gayle Fleming “Nothing will endear you more to a person from another country than your effort to learn their language,” stated Robert Y. Thornton, state attorney-general, when speaking to the Japanese class Wednesday. After observing the class at work, Mr. Thornton dis cussed his own background in the language and his ex periences during a recent trip to Japan. His background in the study of Japanese began when Mr. Thornton was an intelligence of ficer during the war. “Initially my own teacher,” he adds that he learned Japanese by “digging it out of books.” CALLIGRAPHY is being taught to classes at Hollyrood pri mary school on Tuesday afternoons. Junior Chris Clarke helps grade-schoolers with work on sentences. The project is part of the co-operative program between grade and high schools. At staff students teach calligraphy to Hollyrood pupils in teams of two Teaching elementary school students calligraphy since the first of the year has been one of the projects of the art staff. Members have been going to Hollyrood primary school each Tuesday and almost of the staff have taken a turn at teaching. This program is part of the co-operative program between grade schools and high schools which began last year, when prospective high schoolers came to visit freshman classes. The students have advanced from simple letters to words and now they are printing full sim ple sentences, according to Chris Clark. Members of the staff teach in teams of two. The class is left up to the art students and thus gives the teacher a time for a di version from her class. The art staff has visited the school every week except for test week and they taught for the last time until after Christ mas vacation on Tuesday. “The children seem quite ea ger to learn calligraphy and it’s fun to held them learn,” states Jacqueline Cain. By making his own dic tionary, listening to Radio Tokyo and being tutored by American Japanese, Mr. Thornton was able to achieve about the same level as that of the Japanese class. He then applied for the army’s course in Japanese with a year at the University of Michigan and six months of study on the base. Mr. Thornton completed the first part in seven months with Thespians to initiate fourteen seniors in recognition for drama class work Thespians, the national drama honor society, has recently in formed 14 senior dramateurs of their acceptance into the Grant chapter, Thespian Troupe No. 1657. Initiates are Casey Coughlin, Bob Fast, Kathy Hanson, Lei Huber, Joy Lowenthal, Alex Newton, Dan O’Donnell and Jeff Perel. Also to join will be Judy Ran som, Sharon Rosenthal, Rita Ru- sen, Mark Smith, Joan Steinfeld and Sandra Yoder. “We are a part of the National Thespian association, an honor ary society for high school achievement in the dramatic aOrts,” stated Mike Stefik, presi dent. Other officers include Vice- president Polly Tower, Chris Curry, secretary; Pete Borho, treasurer; and Historian Jeff Coulter. the help of a tutor, giving him thirteen months of formal educa tion in Japanese. “That’s all day, every day,” explains Mr. Thorn ton, “they use the same tech nique as you, conversational. This is best.” Extremely enthusiastic about the Japanese class, Mr. Thornton expressed hope that the program would be “continued and expanded.” Complimenting the class and offering suggestions, Mr. Thorn ton told them, “You would be understood anywhere in Japan.” “Japanese is a difficult lan guage,” he states, “because it has no common roots like the ro mance languages.” “I would encourage you when ever possible to talk to Japa nese,” advised Mr. Thornton. “The tendency is to hang back so make yourself talk.” Mr. Thornton is trying to ini tiate a greater exchange of stu dents between the United States and Japan. He explains that al though the Japanese get a good background in English at school, all the teachers are Japanese and some speak such “Japanese-y English” that it’s almost impos sible to understand. A few American students are in Japan now, but according to Mr. Thornton they are rare and usually are enrolled in private schools. He would like to see at least one American student in every junior and senior high school in Japan and one Japanese in every American school. take sweepstakes * Party Favors ★ Decorations 2834 N. E. Broadway (at 28th) Halfway between Lloyd’s and Hollywood PARK FREE lot , XL Ciuf WE'VE BEEN IN MARIO'S FOR OUR CHRISTMAS SHOP PING." Speech students State and <?ity sweepstakes awards have been won by speech students in recent meets at Pa cific university and Marshall high school. At the state meet at Pacific, 14 students combined to win the the award. A total of 1,200 stu dents from 34 different high schools attended the meet. Juniors Bob Heldfond and John Luik placed first in ex temporaneous speeches and won trophies. Taking second place were Sue Hatchard in humorous and Dave Mills in oratory. Jim Winkler took third place in extemporaneous and finalist in serious interpretation was Jane Nichols. In oratory, Wendy Wong placed as semi-finalist and Dan Aiken as finalist. ROBERT Y. THORNTON is introduced by Mrs. Matsuko Bunch to the students in her Japanese class. Laurie McGill Smart Gifts that are sure to please him on Christmas at ìftarioA Men's & Young Men's Shop Jackie Hodges LLOYD CENTER
